Girolamo Frescobaldi
engraving by Claude Mellan (1619)

Girolamo Alessandro Frescobaldi also Gerolamo, Girolimo, and Geronimo Alissandro (1583 – 1643) was a musician from the Duchy of Ferrara, in what is now northern Italy.  He was one of the most important composers of keyboard music in the late Renaissance and early Baroque periods.  He was considered what might be called a child prodigy.

Contemporary accounts describe Frescobaldi as a child prodigy who was “brought through various principal cities of Italy”; he quickly gained prominence as a performer and patronage of important noblemen. Composers who visited Ferrara during the period included numerous important masters such as Claudio Monteverdi, John Dowland, Orlande de Lassus, Claudio Merulo, and Carlo Gesualdo.